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Air New Zealand Wine Awards 2012 – Gold Medal Winners

14-Nov-2012The medal winners of the 2012 Air New Zealand Wine Awards were announced today. Of 1367 wines entered from 222 wineries, there were 97 (7.09%) gold medals, 183 (13.39%) silver and 364 (26.63%) bronzes awarded, making a total of 644 (47.11%) medals awarded. This is very much on par with last year's results except that this year there proportionally slightly more golds and a little less silvers. Sustainable winegrowing is a major focus of the New Zealand wine industry, and is recognised at the show. 90% of the wines awarded medals were accredited or certified sustainable. Such medal winners are awarded ‘Pure' status. This year 92% of the entries were accredited, up from 75% last year.

The judging was conducted in Auckland over 5-7 November by a team of judges chaired by Michael Brajkovich MW, and included Julia Harding MW of the U.K., Navneet Singh of Australia and Bill Zacharkiw of Canada as international judges.

Observations from the Gold Medal Winners

As expected, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc were the most successful varieties with 21 and 17 golds respectively, these being the largest classes entered. Chardonnay was extremely successful with 15 golds. Pinot Gris and Riesling featured in the whites with 9 and 7 golds each, and Syrah among the reds with 8 golds. There were 6 Dessert wine golds. By region, Marlborough was the clear winner, due to sheer numbers of wines entered, awarded 46 of the golds. Hawke's Bay wines accounted for 19 and Central Otago 17. On the company front, yet again Villa Maria was a clear leader, winning 20 gold medals, with associated brand Vidal taking 4 golds and Esk Valley 2 golds. Marlborough labels Lawson's Dry Hills won 4 golds and Saint Clair 3 golds.

All of the 17 Sauvignon Blanc golds came from Marlborough, and all but 2 were from the 2012 vintage. It appears that 2012 has proven to be a very successful year for Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Of the 15 Chardonnays, 7 were from Marlborough and 4 from Hawke's Bay, and 10 of the golds were from the 2011 vintage. With the aromatic whites, 5 of the 9 Pinot Gris were Marlborough, and 6 were from 2012.

The Pinot Noir golds were evenly split between Central Otago and Marlborough, with 10 each, and one wine a blend of Central and North Otago. 13 of the Pinot Noirs came from the 2011 vintage. Of the 8 Syrahs, 7 were from Hawke's Bay and one from Waiheke Island.

The Gold Medal Winners

Here are the gold medal winners, listed by variety. I have made no distinction between ‘Pure Gold' and ‘Gold', nor the trophy category they will be competing in. For a list with these distinctions made, visit www.airnzwineawards.co.nz The trophy winners will be announced at the awards dinner in Wellington on 24 November.